1868- Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women first published
in installments.

1919- The Fleischer Brother's first Out of the Inkwell
cartoon featuring Koko the Clown. Koko was rotoscoped- meaning traced from live
action like Motion Capture does today. Dave Fleischer put on the clown suit and
was filmed by his brother Max.

1928- Walt Disney and his crew recorded the final soundtrack
and music for the first Mickey Mouse short, Steamboat Willie. Walt was unhappy
with the first version of the track, and pawned his car for the money to pay
for this second session.

1930- Death Valley Days Show premiered on radio, sponsored
by Twenty Mule Team Borax powder. When it moved to television in the 50’s the
host was Ronald Reagan.

1935- George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess
premiered at the Colonial Theater in Boston. It flopped originally but after
some rewrites it became a major hit.

1952- This Is Cinerama, showcasing the widescreen film
process, opened in theaters.

1955- James Dean (24) was killed when his Porsche 550 Spyder
crashed head on into a pickup truck driven by college student Donald Turnipseed
on Highway 41 outside of Paso Robles, California. Dean was driving 85 mph at
dusk without his headlights on, and two hours earlier had been given a ticket for
speeding. Until now the American public had only seen him in one movie-
"East of Eden" and some TV work. Giant and Rebel Without a Cause had
yet to be released, yet the legend endures to this day. In an errie
coincidence, Dean filmed a public service announcement promoting automobile
safety. His last lines were:” Remember, the life you save may be mine!”

1960- Hanna & Barbera's "The
Flintstones" debuted. For six seasons in prime time the inhabitants of
301 Cobblestone Lane, Bedrock, was one of the most successful TV series ever.
Originally going to be named the Flagstones, then Gladstones, before
Flintstones. Ed Benedicts' designs with Alan Reed as the voice of Fred, Jean
Van Der Pyl the voice of Wilma, Mel Blanc doing Barney and Bea Benaderet doing
Betty.

The show was so obviously modeled on the live action comedy The
Honeymooners, that Jackie Gleason considered suing, especially when two of his
old writers went to work for them. But his people dissuaded him, saying if he
did he’s be hated by every child in America.

1930-Ninety year old writer George Bernard Shaw turned down
the offer of a Peerage.

1930- First day of shooting on the Tod Browning horror
classic Dracula. Hungarian actor and recreational morphine addict Bela Lugosi
played the lead role he had already made famous on stage. Lugosi was identified
with the character Dracula for the rest of his life and when he died he was
buried in the Dracula cape.

1933- The movie A Bill of Divorcement introduced the star
Katherine Hepburn.

1953- The television show “Make Room for Daddy” premiered,
making a star out of big nosed nightclub entertainer Danny Thomas. The Lebanese
Thomas had tried to break into films with no luck.He burst into tears after Columbia studio
chief Harry Cohn suggested he get a nose job and forget about it. Danny Thomas
at one time was the richest man in Beverly Hills.

1975- The legendary R&B singer Jackie Wilson, collapsed of a heart attack while performing
on stage for Dick Clark’s ‘Good
Ol’ Rock and Roll Revue’ at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, N.J. He lingered
in an out of a coma for 8 years, dying in 1984. He was only 49. All the time he
was comatose, Dick Clark covered all his medical bills, and kept it a secret. This wasn’t revealed until Clark himself died
in 2012.

1976- At his birthday party musician Jerry Lee Lewis
accidentally shot his bass player Norman Owens in the chest with his 357
magnum. He said he was using the gun to try and open a soft drink bottle and it
accidentally went off. Owens survived and sued Lewis.

1996- The first Nintendo 64 bit
game system, The NES, debuted in the US. It sold 500,000 the first day.

1928-For his birthday William
Paley, son of a cigar manufacturer, was given control of a little radio company
called Columbia broadcasting. He turns CBS into a corporate broadcasting giant,
and threw his support behind developing television and long playing records.

1961-The Hazel TV show with
Shirley Booth premiered.

1967- Speed Racer premiered in the
U.S.

1976- Stevie Wonder released his
famous album Songs in the Key of Life.

1771-Young artist Francisco Goya entered a scholarship
competition sponsored by the Art Academy of Parma.He lost to an artist named Bettino. Judges
said about Goya’s work: "Crude and ugly colors".

1935-13 year old singer Frances Gumm of the singing Gumm
Sisters signed an exclusive contract with MGM Pictures. Louis B. Mayer changed
Frances name to Judy Garland.

1937- J R R Tolkiens’ The Hobbit first appeared in
bookshops.

1938- Bob Hope first sang “Thanks For the Memory” on his NBC
radio show. It became a hit his movie appearance in the film “The Big
Broadcast of 1938.”

1944- Evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson died in hospital
from an overdose of sleeping pills. She was 53. MacPherson was one of the most
powerful evangelists of the 1920s with thousands of followers donating millions
of dollars.

1947- Disney’s film Fun and Fancy Free, featuring
Mickey and the Beanstalk.

1954- The Tonight Show premiered. Steve Allen hosts.

1961- Hanna Barbera's "Top Cat" show premiered. Do
you remember the words to the theme song..?"Top Cat, the most effectual-
Top Cat, who's intellectual: Close friends get to call him T.C., Providing it's
with dignity. Top Cat, the indisputable leader of the gang... He's the Boss
he's a pip, he's the championship, He's the most tip-top, Top Cat !"

1962- Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was published.
The best seller first brought to the public’s eye how indiscriminate use of
chemical pesticides, particularly DDT, was damaging the environment and killing
off wildlife.

1977- Bob McKimson, Warner director of countless Foghorn
Leghorn shorts, died of heart failure in front of Friz Freleng and Yosemite Sam
animator Gerry Chiniquy while having lunch. Fellow artist Art Leonardi had
asked Bob for a souvenir drawing that morning, Bob did him a Bugs Bunny but as
he was leaving Art reminded him that he neglected to sign it. Bob said as he
walked out "Oh, I'll get to it after lunch..."

1989- The Japanese corporate giant Sony purchased Columbia
Pictures.

2003- Hours after the seasons
final concert, in the dead the night, the historic bandshell at the Hollywood
Bowl was demolished. After a long legal fight with preservationists, the
historic 1929 structure designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, that Gershwin and
Stokowski played in, was replaced with a new shell promising better acoustics.

1560- A Spanish expedition under Don Pedro de Ursua left
Peru for the deep Amazon. Lost in the limitless rainforest almost all his men
die or go mad. The expedition at one point was taken over by a deranged
conquistador named Aguirre who declared himself 'Emperor of the Kingdom of El
Dorado'! The incident is the subject of Werner Herzog's 1972 movie
"Aguirre the Wrath of God".

1575-Writer Miguel de Cervantes was captured by Barbary
Pirates and held a slave for five years until his family ransomed him. He wrote
Don Quixote in 1604.

1687- The Ancient GREEK PARTHENON WAS BLOWN UP during a
minor Venetian raid on Turkish held Athens.A random shell ignited a gunpowder magazine the Turks had been storing
inside of it. For two thousand years the Greek masterpiece had survived mostly
intact.Later on in 1801 English Lord
Elgin will back up his frigate to the shore and pry off the frieze marble
sculptures for his collection.

1835- Donizetti’s opera Lucia De Lammermoor premiered.

1887- Emile Berliner patented the gramophone, rejecting
Thomas Edison's cylinder in favor of a flat disc record on a turntable.

1926- Bullock's Wilshire department store opened. The Tea
Room quickly became the in place for Hollywood Society to see and be seen in.

1937- "Queen of the Blues" Singer Bessie Smith
died after a car accident in Mississippi. She crashed her Packard into a parked
car. She was 43. One account said she died because she was refused treatment in
a segregated hospital, but the truth was she was treated by a white doctor at
the scene and sent to the nearest hospital, which was a black one.

1941- Max Fleischer's "Superman" cartoon debuts.
They were much more expensive that the usual short cartoons- $90,000 to the
usual $40,000, but Paramount wanted them.

1957- The musical West Side Story opened. The legend
goes composer Leonard Bernstein was in the hospital to be operated on for a
deviated septum. While recuperating he ran into lyricist Steven Sondheim, who
was also recovering from an operation. To pass the time while convalescing they
started talking about the idea of an updated Romeo and Juliet set to music in
the slums. One early title was Gang Way!

1960-THE NIXON-KENNEDY TELEVISED DEBATE. The first televised
presidential debate that really ushered in the era of the
"media-candidate". People who heard the debate on radio thought Vice
President Nixon had won because he scored more points on issues. But far more
who saw it on Television lauded Kennedy because of his cool, calm Presidential
bearing as opposed to Nixon's pale sweaty-lipped nervousness.

As he watched the debate on TV, Nixon’s running mate,
Senator Henry Cabot-Lodge III, murmured “ We’re gonna lose…” For years Nixon
put down his electoral defeat to the fact that he refused stage makeup before
going on camera.

One New York Times analyst referred to Kennedy & Nixon
as the Roadrunner & Wile E. Coyote of American politics.

1961- Nineteen year old folk singer Bob Dylan made his debut
in a Greenwich Village coffee house Gerde’s Folk City.

1962- The Beverly Hillbillies debuts. The story goes
that CBS mogul William Paley disliked farm-humor type shows, and this was
premiered behind his back while he was on vacation.

1964-The premiere of Gilligan’s
Island. The good ship Minnow was named for Newton Minnow, the FCC Chairman who first called
television “A Vast Wasteland”.

1983- Filmation's "He-Man and the Masters of the
Universe". The popular toy was originally supposed to be a product tie
-in to the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Conan
the Barbarian, but toy maker Mattel balked at the films R rated violence,
so changed the toy's name. I Have The Powerrrrrr!!!

1987- A market research group called Q-5 tried to use a bank
of computers number-crunching demographic surveys to design the ultimate safe,
wholesome, politically-correct children's show.They came up with "The Little
Clowns of Happytown"-. Of the 26 children's series in syndication it
remained dead last in ratings, He-Man, Jem and G.I. Joe on top. The people have
spoken.

1990- The Motion Picture Association changed the rating for
the naughtiest movies from X to NC-17.

1888- The beginning of the
Sherlock Holmes adventure The Hound of the Baskervilles.

1933- Young writer John Huston was
driving drunk on Sunset Blvd when he struck and killed a pedestrian. His father
Walter Huston was a top movie star, so to avoid scandal MGM head Louis B. Mayer
paid $46,000 to cover it up. John Huston went on to become a great Hollywood
director and screenwriter.

1934- Stanford graduate Frank Thomas’s first day as a Walt
Disney Animator.

1936- Noel Coward's play 'Private Lives' opened.

1938- Bob Clampett's cartoon "Porky in
Wackyland" ( Foo!)

1953-UPA's "Unicorn in the
Garden" directed by Bill Hurtz, based on the cartoon style and story
by James Thurber.

1953- The movie "The Robe" premiered, the first
movie in CinemaScope. It's success was part of a wave of 'Sword &
Sandal" epics and fostered many variations on wide screen processes-
Superama,VistaVision, Dynarama, WarnerVision, TotalScope-etc.There had been earlier experiments with wide screen - Abel
Gance's 1925 Napoleon, which used three 35mm images shown simultaneously, and Cimarron
1930, which was a true wide screen 70mm film starring a very young John Wayne.
It was superseded by 1967 by the more advanced Panavision lens. For many years
in Hollywood we called a wide screen picture a "Scope" picture.

1960- The "Howdy Doody Time" children's show ended
after thirteen years. The show remains a pivotal memory in the minds of
thousands of American baby-boomers who grew up in the fifties. As the last song
and the last credits rolled by, just before the cameras switched off, Clarabell
the mute clown goes up to the lens and in a haunting voice said; "Goodbye,
Kids."

1968- T.V. show "60 Minutes" debuts. Mike Wallace
was pared with Harry Reasoner. The show was originally aired Tuesday nights at
10PM and fared poorly in the ratings. When it was moved to Sundays at 7:00PM it
became a weekly institution.

1977- The TV series “The Love Boat “debuted.

1988- The Godfather of Soul
Music James Brown got a little crazy sometimes. This day he burst into his
office complex in Georgia waving a pistol and shotgun and demanded everyone
stop using his washroom! After locking the bathrooms he led police on high speed
chase through Georgia and South Carolina, only stopping when the cops shot out
his tires. He rode the rims till they collapsed. James Brown did 2 years for
being under the influence of drugs. Hay!